Twenty Questions
by Short-Circuited
Summary: Age makes no matter to her. But for some people it might. . . . This is a one shot request for Drapple. BruceXOC.


It was moments where she never made it to a scene in time that tore her up inside. Losing a patient or a colleague was something that Juniper could never accept, no matter how many trips to the on board psychiatrist she took. She isn't qualified for psychiatric work, thank God, because she would not know what to do if she had to perform her own psyche test on herself.

No, the psychiatric gig is left up to her companion Lillinette Barton, but at this point in time Juniper is the one playing shrink to her friend as she was curled up in a ball, sobbing her pretty little gray eyes out. A particularly loud squeal of heart break echoed along the walls of the doctor's office and the halls outside. No one took notice though, for they knew what was wrong with Ms. Johnson.

Juniper gathered the young woman in her arms and rocked her back and forth, murmuring reassurances in her ear. She merely whimpered and choked back a few sobs that threatened to escape.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard", the Psychiatrist screamed at the top of her lungs, nearly popping June's eardrums at the magnitude.

She knew that Lilli was referring to Loki, the god that was taken into Thor's custody earlier that evening.

"Shh, shh. You can't say those things, Sweetie", June murmured into the top of her friend's hair.

Lillinette never took notice to her friends, the Avengers (excluding Thor), walking through the door with somber features. Instead, more sobs wracked her body and June had to keep the poor woman from thrashing about sporadically by holding her tightly. She removed her friend's black rimmed glasses to keep from her tears collecting on the lenses. June stuffed them between the belt of her uniform and the uniform itself and then quietly motioned for her brother, Clint Barton, to come closer.

The S.H.E.I.L.D. agent did so and knelt down next to the two women and placed an arm around the shivering one. Juniper looked over the top of her friends head at Clint and whispered to him,

"Help me get her to one of the patient rooms, Agent."

Clint nodded and picked his sister up from the couch and followed June out of the Doctor's office and into one of the Hellicarrier's hospital rooms. This left the rest of the Avenger's to sit in silence on the various chairs and couch that satin the room.

No one utter a single word to one another. Instead they all wallowed in their own misery. They lost a team mate, one that was their glue, and the one whose death brought them together.

Bruce sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair which was grayed neared his ears. Sure he was a doctor, but not a head doctor. How was he supposed to help the team when their shrink was not in her right mind? Hell, he didn't think that anyone was currently in their right mind at the moment. Plus he had other things plaguing his thoughts, he didn't need the loss of a team member weighing him down, causing him even more dangerous stress. This stress wasn't healthy for him, neither for anyone else on the Helicarrier for that matter.

His mind flickered toward thoughts of the green eyed doctor that just left the room. Her unruly chocolate tresses and her fair skin teased his mind's eye. She was so beautiful, so young . . .

The doctor took notice to his rapidly increasing pulse and stopped the thoughts from entering his head. By the time he finally cleared his mind of the young girl fully, said girl traipsed right back in the room, followed by Hawkeye.

"So, Doc. What's the verdict? Is she going to be alright", questioned the famed Tony Stark.

Doc, known as Juniper, plopped down behind her desk and allowed her head to slam forward, harshly colliding with the metal. Steve Rogers and Bruce winced a bit, but the others paid no heed, for they all felt the same way she did. They all heard a quiet mumbling coming from the young woman and couldn't hear doto her voice being muffled by her hair and the desk.

"Speak up, Doc", Clint said as he leaned against the far wall, crossing his arms.

Juniper rose up slightly with an exasperated look on her tire face. June closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair a bit,

"I don't know really. Physically she's perfectly fine, although she might go into shock if she does not get her breathing calmed down. Mentally, though, I'm not so sure."

She opened her dark green eyes to look at the team as she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the desk and lace her fingers together in thought.

"I'm no head doctor, but it doesn't even take my Ph.D to figure out that she's broken mentally." She paused for a moment to let her words sink in, "Broken hearted too."

"Well, what can you do?" Captain asked concerned for his friend's status.

Juniper looked to the first avenger with compassionate eyes,

"The most I can do is keep her here and watch her vitals. I'm worried about shock or high blood pressure from the stress. Other than that there's not much I can do. I'm not trained to give the help she really needs."

"How can you not be trained for this", snapped Natasha.

Juniper flicked her gazed towards the assassin that let the venomous words roll off her tongue. The Doc, however took no heed to her and instead bit right back.

"Watch your tone, Widow. I don't care if you're a special agent or not. Just remember that the next time I give you a shot I just might accidentally give you a high dosage. Enough to put you in a coma. . ."

The two women held each other's narrowed glare for as long as they could, neither wanting to give in and turn away. Both girls' fists were clenched in fury and it wasn't until Bruce spoke up that they turned their attention to him.

"Is there anything we can do, Ms. Lore?"

Something flickered through Juniper's eyes, but she said nothing on the subject, in its place she addressed Bruce's question,

"Nothing that I can think of, Mr. Banner. All I can tell you guys is to visit her as much as possible; she needs to keep her mind off of Agent Coulson and I believe that's going to be extremely difficult."

She continued on, rubbing her temples to alleviate some of the pressure in her head,

"I just wish that I could heal her, but my powers cannot heal things that are as abstract as the heart of the mind."

Clint walked over and laid a large hand on her shoulder, causing the young girl to look up with tired eyes. He smiled softly, reassuringly, at his sister's friend.

"We know that you're doing your best, Doc."

Juniper in return rested her hand atop Clint's and gave a sweet, thankful grin. One that raised many eyebrow's in the room. Everyone knew the two were friendly with one another, but not this friendly. Bruce on the other hand could help but let a darkened look cross his brown eyes when he noticed how close the two were. His knuckles popped and cracked as they curled into his palms.

Of course no one took notice to this, except for, well maybe, the resident doctor on board. Sincerely confused, Juniper cocked her head to the side questioningly before pursing her lips and pulling out a file from a stack atop her desk.

With a sigh she dismissed the group, "I have some files that I need to tend to regarding the casualties this afternoon. I'll probably be calling you in one by one to get a debriefing. Now if you all don't mind."

The team nodded and stood to make their way out of Doc's office. Only when the rest were out did she call out placidly, not even looking up from the file she was writing on,

"Mr. Banner, I would like you to stay. You are my first debriefing."

The older scientist paused in his steps out the door, one hand on the door frame. He looked out into the hall to see his friend, Tony smirking at him with mischief. Tony shrugged his shoulders and gestured for him to follow the young girl's command. With a roll of his chocolate eyes, Bruce spun on his heel and re entered to office.

"Please, close the door and have a seat, Mr. Banner."

Doing as he was told in a matter of seconds, Bruce was soon seated before the doctor, whom scribbled rapidly upon her file, making various unintelligible notes as she went. Seconds of silence ticked pass with nothing more than her writing to fill the void that threatened to swallow them whole.

"Is there any particular reason you're tense, Mr. Banner", she soon questioned, only pausing once to glance up at the man quickly before writings more.

"Ah, so this isn't a debriefing?" He said with a knowing smile.

"This has something to do with your health, so technically I am debriefing you, Mr. Banner."

Bruce leaned forward a bit, "And what's with all this ' ' stuff?"

Juniper did the same as him, mocking his tone of voice, "And what's with all this 'Ms. Lore' stuff?"

When he didn't say anything she smirked and went back to writing, "Besides, you're avoiding the question, Bruce. Now, as your Doctor, I request you to tell me what's wrong."

Finally, June laid her pen down and laced her fingers together to occupy them as she glanced up to Bruce. Her green eyes peered sweetly into his own and this of course broke his walls down a little. How could he even say no to this young lady that held his heart?

Not having any other way to put it Bruce just put it as simply and bluntly as possible,

"Are you and Agent Barton seeing each other?"

Being taken aback by his question, June merely raised a dark brow in question, "No. We're just friends. Why do you ask, Bruce?"

He shrugged his shoulders and glanced away from her gazed, "I don't know, maybe because you two seemed pretty close a few minutes ago."

"When", she asked; seriously confused at Bruce's not normal manner.

Bruce growled, agitated a bit, "A few minutes ago when he touched you."

"So what, he was trying to comfort me, because I doubted myself; it's not a big deal."

"It is to me!"

Juniper jumped a bit in shock at his sudden outburst, fear flashing across her eyes; but as soon as it did it was gone and replaced by anger. Anger that trailed all the way down to the tips of her fingers where she felt a dangerous, heat pooling in them swiftly. Nothing happened but she knew what would if she felt threatened anymore.

"Bruce, calm yourself. Now, tell me what is going on", she ordered calmly.

The scientist growled and ran his hands through his hair roughly, pulling in various places as he did so. He tried his hardest to control his slowly escalating heart rate and tried his hardest to not shout his thoughts to the young, special woman before him. How could he even believe that she could ever care for him, a man older than her whom could probably not even give her a future with a family?

Everything had went to hell in a hand basket with Betty who was only a year younger than him, what made him think that a young woman almost twenty years younger than him would like him? God, he was a damn pedophile!

He groaned again and then looked up to the woman who now stood with her arms crossed over her chest and an irritated tap to her foot.

"Well?"

Bruce swallowed the lump in his throat, "It has to do with a girl."

As soon as the statements left his mouth he slapped himself.

"_It has to do with a girl? What am I 18?"_, he questioned, but then soon regretted it when his conscious said back, "_No you're not, but she is. . ."_

"Oh, really? Is she cute", she asked, sitting back down at her desk.

Bruce looked up from his hands and into her eyes as she smiled sweetly back to him. There was a knowing twinkling in her green orbs that gave him all the reassurance he needed; so he ran with the opportunity he had.

"She's absolutely gorgeous", he stated with a soft smile.

"When did you meet her, Bruce?"

"Only a week ago", he answered.

"Such a short amount of time", she said, trying to hide her growing blush. "Do you like her?"

"Undoubtedly. She's the kindest, young lady I've ever met and she doesn't avoid me because of the Other Guy."

"Then why don't you ask her out, Bruce. I'm sure she'd be lucky to have a guy such as you." Juniper couldn't keep the blush from rising on her fair cheeks and her eyes couldn't stay locked with his own.

Bruce leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees. This was the moment where he'd voice his thoughts and worries,

"Well, you see that's the problem. There's a bit of a big age gap that I'm afraid of."

This caught her attention for a moment, "How big?"

His brown eyes glanced up once and his hands tensed together, "Big. . ."

"Oh, I see." For a moment she chewed on her lips, thinking over what he was saying. Of course she knew his actual age, she was his doctor.

"Is she of an appropriate age, Bruce?"

"I don't know", he looked up with hopeful eyes, "You tell me, Doc."

Juniper's cheeks looked as red as tomatoes and she couldn't help the way her heart pounded in her ears, pumping her blood chaotically through her arteries. Bruce just basically admitted that he cared for her more than a friend and colleague.

"Bruce", she stuttered out, "I'm sure she feels the exact same way about you and all you have to do is just tell her how you feel."

He then smiled slightly a stood up to walk around the side of her desk. Bruce offered her a large hand, to which she took as he helped her to stand up. He pulled her close to where a sheet of paper could barely fit between the two. Her head barely even reached his chin and this made him laugh a little.

"Are you sure that she would feel the same", he questioned, dipping his head down to brush noses with her.

June's breath hitched but her eyes fell closed all the same, "Positive."

She murmured the words before closing the gap between the two. Juniper could barely believe that this was happening, and neither could he. Bruce's kisses were slow and tentative, as he did not want to frighten her away, for he knew that he had to be her first kiss. A girl her age, who worked hard through school (despite her parents' position in S.H.E.I.L.D.) and got a job in a government agency that seemingly did not exist, did not have enough time in her life for socializing.

Of course, he was right and she felt that Bruce was the only one that she ever wanted to be with for the rest of her life. The way he held her gently, as if one move would break her, told her that this man would never harm her in any way.

The way his tongue slithered along her lips, asking shyly for entrance almost made her melt, and this made her give into his request. She was glad she did. Despite his careful demeanor, Bruce was actually quite skilled, so much that it made her wonder where said skill came from and who taught him. Because whoever taught him she wanted to hunt them down and thank them graciously but at the same time stab them with a syringe full of something lethal . . .repeatedly.

Large hands tightened on her hips gently; rubbing with their fingers as they did so. This caused a whimper to be elicited from her mouth and just as she was about to trail her fingers into his dark locks he pulled away with a grin. Their breath mingled together as their foreheads connected gently.

"Doc?"

"Yes, Mr. Banner", she said with a shy smile.

"Do you think she likes me", he asked her softly.

Juniper laughed heartily and wrapped her arms around his neck,

"I think she loves you."


End file.
